


Business Or Pleasure

by schmevil



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Drugs, F/M, Female Character of Color, Female Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-09
Updated: 2010-03-09
Packaged: 2017-10-07 20:16:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schmevil/pseuds/schmevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie Carmichael conducts his business out of the library. Cho Chang takes issue with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Business Or Pleasure

**Author's Note:**

> [](http://outlawpoet.livejournal.com/profile)[**outlawpoet**](http://outlawpoet.livejournal.com/) likes to call this Hogwarts Underground. So it's a little bit noir, but not really.

It was a dark and stormy night. In a dusty, poorly lit corner of Hogwarts' library, three students, (a girl and two boys), were engaged in a clandestine transaction. They were unaware of the storm raging outside. The high shelves packed with magical texts blocked their view. They were aware that it was night, for two of them carried watches, and the third could most certainly consult the others.

The older boy, a Ravenclaw, carried an antique fob watch that was very nice indeed. It was a family heirloom, though the family was not his. He'd received the watch as payment for services rendered, in lieu of galleons. Truth be told, Eddie Carmichael vastly preferred galleons, as family heirlooms were difficult to fence . The watch, formerly the prized possession of one Pansy Parkinson (and once the prized possession of her now deceased older brother), had been worth it, but only after Carmichael was done stripping it of its protective enchantments.

These particular clients though, two Hufflepuff fifth years, likely had nothing of similar value. Nothing save whatever galleons their mums sent them for pumpkin juice and candy. Soon those galleons, meager though they were, would be his.

"Do you have it?" asked the boy, anxious and too loud by half.

"Keep it down." Carmichael brought a finger up to his lips. "Do you want Pinch to hear?" That was enough for the Hufflepuffs - they squirmed with even more anxiousness than before, but went quiet. Probably they were imagining the scene it would cause. Hardworking Hufflepuffs conspiring to cheat? Scandalous! What would their parents say? And that was the beauty of it. The reason that Carmichael didn't fear getting caught: shame.

"Oh god, I can't do this," moaned the girl.

"Shut up," boy hissed. "You agreed to this, same as the rest of us." The rest of us? Were they planning to redistribute his goods? Carmichael didn't mind. It would only enhance his reputation.

The girl looked up at Carmichael, eyes big, and innocent, and desperate. Afraid she would get all Trolls. He knew the kind. "Does it really work?" Hopeful, and easy prey because of it.

Carmichael grinned. "How else do you think I got nine Outstanding Owls last year?"

"You are a Ravenclaw."

"Yeah, we love learning," said another, unwelcome voice. Unwelcome to Carmichael, at least, and that was what mattered. The Hufflepuffs startled. So did Carmichael, but he knew better than to show it. Welcome or unwelcome, he wasn't going to let her get the better of it. "Doesn't mean we love studying."

"What are _you_ doing here?" asked the girl. A good question, but not one he could ask himself. He was going to play this one cool.

"We're Eddie's... silent partners." Cho smiled at Carmichael, trying to look dangerous. She only managed because she _was_ dangerous to him. Cho Chang, in of herself, was about as threatening as a box of Nifflers. The goody two shoes was trouble, though. Her Prefect boyfriend was even more trouble. Behind Cho, in the shadowiest part of the stacks, another girl shuffled nervously. Marietta Edgecombe. Well, thought Carmichael. Maybe that was an angle.

Cho wasn't giving him up, right away - she was up to something. But what?

"Cho Chang is your partner?" asked the boy, with something like stars in his eyes. Carmichael would show him real stars, if he didn't make up his mind quick.

"So are you buying or not?"

"I don't know..."

"Look, do you want to spend the rest of your life scooping ice cream at Florian Fortescues?"

"No," said the boy, this time with conviction. Just how Carmichael liked it.

The girl though, she lacked it. "But it's dangerous."

"If you can't have faith in magic, what can you have faith in?" Carmichael smiled, disarmingly. He had a way with disarming smiles. Part of why he'd managed to run this scheme so successfully. Two years before he'd sat his Owls, he was already hawking the potion to idiot Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Most of them trusted the reputation of Ravenclaw, and Carmichael himself, of course. Eddie Carmichael, genius Ravenclaw, and all around stand up bloke. He smiled his all the way to Gringotts.

The only trouble was that his elixir was substandard at best, dangerous at worst. It didn't bother Carmichael, but Cho? Cho was too honest, and too concerned with maintaining the good reputation of Ravenclaw. Carmichael could, and did, sell potions that didn't work, and chalked any failures up to misuse. Any blow back would come straight to Carmichael. No one involved had any stake in involving teachers, and he was more than able to handle a few dissatisfied customers: comp them a love potion or a performance enhancer, and they'd shut up. He had a feeling that Miss House Pride herself wouldn't like those odds. Not when the Cup was on the line.

He was betting that was what had driven her and her sidekick out of their cozy dorm rooms, on such a nasty night. Carmichael trusted his instincts. He was a good judge of character. You needed to be, to stay on top in this business; to stay in it at all. He was also a Ravenclaw to the core. He knew the quality of his product, and he knew enough to stay away from it. He had nine Outstandings, the admiration of his peers, and a successful business built on the desperation of the gullible and the moronic, and he wasn't going to be done in by a slip of a girl with delusions of making Head Girl, alongside her insipid boyfriend.

"It worked for me." Carmichael grinned winningly. He knew it was a winning grin because that's what it had always done for him: won him hearts, minds, and more indulgence from teachers than even Malfoy with Snape on his side, could boast.

"We'll take it," said the girl. The boy nodded. They fingered their galleons nervously, but they handed them over - that was what mattered. Carmichael was happy to take them, nerves or not.

Cho and Edgecombe watched the transaction, both of them leaning against the high shelves of books with their arms crossed, both concealing whatever it was they had to conceal, playing the heavy, to Carmichael's salesman. They kept on watching, as the 'Puffs left Eddie's narrow aisle for another one, taking a circuitous route back to the entrance. Cho was as cold as an iceberg on a winter day, but Edgecombe, she looked nervous.

"We're clear," Carmichael said.

"And how do you know that?"

"Come on Cho, you don't expect me to give up all of my professional secrets, do you?"

"Professional secrets? Sub-standard elixirs and potions, and a few charms you picked up during independent study? Come on, Eddie, you might as well tell me."

"Some secrets should stay buried," he said with a bright smile.

"A little digging, and I'll find them all out."

"You're a smart girl, Cho. You probably will figure it all out, but who knows what your digging will unearth."

Cho frowned, but it was Edgecombe who asked the question. "What exactly are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything. Just saying - who knows what you'll find, if you decide to go looking in dark corners."

"We found you, Carmichael."

He laughed. It made for a good show, but he was genuinely amused, and maybe a little flattered, if you could be flattered by that kind of idiocy. "And you think I'm the worst there is, operating in Hogwarts?"

Cho stepped away from the shelf. Her hands came up, fingers uncurled; her stance somewhere between imploring and threatening. Cho was never good at threatening, but she'd figure it out. She was a smart girl. Here it comes, Carmichael thought.

"Dark corners, Eddie?" Cho pulled out a glowing vial and tossed it to him. "Will we find more of this, if we go looking?"

Carmichael pocketed the vial. He'd dispose of it as soon as he could shake the girl detectives. More importantly, for the next few minutes at least, was how she'd found it, and how she'd connected it to him. "How-"

"You don't expect me to give up all of my secrets, do you?" She grinned, and it was both endearingly sweet and superior at once. He was torn between being impressed, and being overtaken by blind panic. He fingered the vial in his pocket. It warmed at his touch. He had to get rid of it, a bad year old gamble coming back to haunt him. He rocketed through the list of suspects, possibilities - who'd been talking? Who'd been talking enough that his name had come up at all? And who was he going to have to sit down with?

Except if someone had talked, what could they possibly have said? Even during that screw up he'd covered his tracks. They couldn't connect him to this without using some banned substances or hexes of their own. Carmichael's hands were clean enough to pass any cursory investigation. Anything deeper than cursory, and the other players would be throwing up blocks of their own. Edgecombe and Cho might have their suspicions, but there was no way they knew the real score.

So this, whatever wild suspicions they might have, was nothing. Just an empty threat. Carmichael smiled charmingly. Edgecombe's frown faltered. Cho's only got harder.

Dispose of the vial and divert suspicion. Or not. He eyed Edgecombe, who looked, as she so often did, nervous. A little pressure in the right places and she'd crack, and then Cho would be alone in this. Miss House Pride herself, crusading to right wrongs and win the Cup, without her backup. And if anyone caught him with the vial, why, I found this sir but I can't tell you where. My honour as a Ravenclaw prevents me, but I can give you a hint. There are a few snakes who'll have something to say about it.

"You're going to stop," Cho said, like she thought he'd listen.

"I am?"

"We know what you're up to, Eddie. We could go to Flitwick with this." Flitwick, and not Dumbledore. Merlin bless house pride. Dumbledore played favourites sure, but he had exactly one favorite now, the Boy Who Lived. Everyone else, Gryffindor, Slytherin or otherwise, was equal in his eyes. Equal, and equally guilty. Charms in the hall? He didn't care. Cheating, fighting, or black market activities on school grounds? For those crimes he had exactly no tolerance.

"Then go."

"What?" Edgecombe said. She was shocked. Cho just narrowed her eyes, calculating.

"Go to him if you like. What can I do about it?"

"You're just going to let us go to Flitwick? Just walk out of here?"

He laughed again. "I'm not going to hex you, if that's what you were thinking. Go to Flitwick. Tell him that you saw me exchange an unknown substance for some galleons. Tell him that I sent away those 'Puffs happy." Edgecombe frowned at that. "Tell him that Eddie Carmichael is, what, a drug dealer?"

"Yes!"

"With what proof? How are you going to convince him that his favourite student, is engaged in such salacious activities, outside of class?"

"Not everyone has been happy with your product, Eddie," said Cho.

Had someone been complaining? Damn. But that was easily fixed. Who would talk to Cho? Carmichael was already narrowing down his list of suspects. He went to great lengths to keep his customers satisfied, and he didn't _appreciate_ it when they broke the unspoken rules of trade. Never talk. Because in the end, Carmichael always knew more of their dirty little secrets, than they did of his. Customers he could deal with, it was what he did best. But customers were all they had on him, a couple of pathetic cowards, who couldn't face their exams without some of Carmichael's best. No more mention of the vial that was heating up Carmichael's pocket - they had _nothing_.

"Good thing I've got a money back guarantee then."

"Why are you doing this?" hissed Edgecombe. "You're risking everything, all of our reputations, and for what? A handful of galleons!"

Cho put a restraining hand on her arm. "Marietta." He followed Cho's hand, to Marietta's arm, to her hand, which was edging close to her wand, where it stuck out of her pocket. Too close for his comfort. He'd missed her going for her wand - he could have spent the week shaking off some nasty, but subtle hex - Marietta always preferred the less visible ones - if it hadn't been for Cho.

"Why don't you go check up on our witness."

"But-"

"Make sure Eddie hasn't already gotten to him." An actual witness? Well, that was something. He'd give Cho that much, and exclude Edgecombe from any credit.

Marietta frowned again. She was ugly when she frowned. Maybe she didn't want to leave Cho alone with him. The big bad dealer of potions. But for damn sure she wanted this over, so she could go back to her Charms homework, and exchanging love notes with some poor unfortunate bastard.

"Fine," she said finally.

When she was out of range, Carmichael smiled brightly at goody two shoes Chang. "Just you and me, kid. It's like old times."

"Just how are you tracking them?"

"You'll figure it out. I have faith in you."

"It's something that Pince wouldn't notice - did you charm the door?"

"Come on, don't get distracted - we've got more important business to discuss. You're here to put me out of mine."

Cho smiled. It was like all of her smiles: heartbreakingly beautiful, and innocent. Misleading, that. Cho was a white hat, make no mistake, but she was no innocent. Carmichael knew that better than anyone. They had a history, Carmichael and Cho. The best kind of history. But all the history in the world couldn't keep him from getting _his_.

"Am I?" Well that was interesting. What was her angle? Did the boyfriend have a birthday coming?

"Edgecombe certainly thought so."

"Marietta doesn't know everything."

He grinned. "That's an understatement."

"People are talking Eddie, but they don't have to." Cho's stance shifted, along with her expression. It was still Cho Chang, purest Ravenclaw of them all, but he was seeing other things, other signals, that he hadn't seen in years. Carmichael started adding things up - any way he figured it, it looked good for him. Either she wanted in, or she just wanted to keep things quiet. Putting him out of business wasn't in the cards.

"You're saying you can keep 'him' quiet." He dropped his voice low, and locked on to her pretty eyes. What would she do?

Cho stepped closer, getting up close and personal with him. "Possibly."

"And what's in it for you?"

"I already said, didn't I?" Big eyes, innocent smile. The smell of her, close by. He leaned in, putting his hands on her hips. If anyone walked by, they'd be hard to make out, in the shadowy stacks. Just two students, sneaking a quick snog. Strategy aside, Carmichael could admit that it was exactly where he wanted her.

"You want to be my silent partner."

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes, and no." She was one of the good guys, but even the good guys needed galleons. Cho more than some. There was no better motivator.

"Old times, Eddie." There she was - his Cho.

"And what about the boyfriend?"

"I love Cedric." She was sincere. He'd seen them together. They were in love. Hearts, flowers, and eventual marriage, if everything went right. That didn't mean that Cho and Carmichael couldn't work together, or have fun doing it.

"And that's my insurance?"

"Absolutely."

Cho pulled him up into a kiss. Carmichael didn't stop her. This looked like start of a beautiful partnership.

 

END


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